With chilly Fall temperatures here to stay, I asked Doug to share his favorite hearty autumn recipes with me. These tempeh croquettes (!) are one; be sure to come back next Friday, when I’ll share the other two delectable recipes he sent me.

“By the time I get home from work and the gym, the last thing I want to do is cook a meal, even if it’s just twenty minutes.”

“I love cooking healthy meals when I have company, but when it’s just me on a Tuesday night, I’m not as motivated.”

“Is it at all possible to eat healthy without getting extra pots and pans dirty?”

These statements make complete sense. I, too, often come home some evenings feeling more lazy than chef-like. I love to cook, and there are nights when all I want to do is press a button and have dinner served to me; I can only imagine what a kitchen-phobe must experience!

Alas, the products listed below have often come to my rescue by allowing me to have a healthy meal with simple ingredients in minutes on days where an avocado, hummus, and sprout sandwich just won’t cut it.

Please note this is simply a personal list of my favorite items. While extensive, it is not a definitive “end all, be all” compilation. There are plenty of other products that would fit the bill but are not listed simply because I have not tried them.

All of these products get high marks from me for flavor, nutrient composition, and agreeable ingredient lists (no test-tube Frankengredients in sight!).

Dave’s Gourmet pasta sauce: with so many commercial pasta sauces laden with sodium and added sugars (but very little flavor), these are an absolute delight. The butternut squash pasta sauce turns pasta night into a culinary treat.

Alessi pasta sauce: imported from Sicily, so they don’t get “green points”, but I justify my purchases by thinking of all the local produce I purchase!

Rao’s pasta sauce: I occasionally have a craving for whole wheat penne a la vodka. When I do, this is the sauce I turn to. The price tag is hefty, but one jar lasts me three or four months.

MUST-HAVES FOR A 3-MINUTE ENTREE OR SIDE SALAD (mix and match):

Pre-washed greens (if the bag or container says “triple washed”, I don’t bother with additional rinsing or washing Straight into my plate or bowl it goes). My tastebuds become putty in arugula’s hands, so that’s generally what I use, but use whatever you prefer.

Grape or cherry tomatoes. Love these. All they need is a quick rinse. No chopping or slicing needed, unless you want to.

Sunshine Burgers: regular readers know how much I love their organic deliciousness.

Canned sardines or wild salmon

I don’t have much experience in the realm of frozen meals (and most of what I have tried classifies as “pretty decent” at best, and therefore not fitting for this “best of” post). However, here are a few items (entrees and side dishes) I like to have handy and enjoy eating. FYI: I prefer cooking them in the oven, which does require a good amount of time:

Evol Burritos: I wish they were slightly lower in sodium, but as long as they are an occasional “I’m in no mood to cook” SOS item (think no more than twice a month), it’s fine. Top with a few tablespoons of salsa if you want to feel more accomplished.

I initially considered mentioning it in the post you refer to, but, in my experience, natto is even harder to track down than edamame and tempeh. Regardless, I should have mentioned it because it is indeed another wonderful unprocessed way to consume soy.

I mention “unprocessed” soy because in their feverish rage to bash soy, anti-soy advocates don’t take the time to differentiate between different varieties of the bean.

It is true that the amount of processed soy in the Standard American Diet (SAD — how appropriate!) is alarming. To label all soy as equally unhealthy, though, is absurdly reductionist and plain wrong.

Some of the world’s healthiest cultures have eaten — and continue to eat — large amounts of unprocessed soy on a daily basis. A diet high in tempeh and natto is very different from one high in soy ice cream, soy chips, and soy burgers.

In any case: like tempeh, natto is fermented soy. This means more nutrients (natto is a great source of vitamin K and folate) as well as higher absorption of minerals. Natto is also a wonderful source of fiber and protein.

There are two key differences between the two, though.

Tempeh is usually (though not always) mixed with other foods, like barley, millet, and flax seeds. Natto is 100 percent soy.

Tempeh is fermented through the addition of the Rhizopus mold. Natto is fermented through the B.subtilis bacteria strand.

From a flavor and texture standpoint, tempeh is meaty/”mushroomy” while natto is sticky and emits a very unique odor that some appreciate and others find repulsive.

I have a feeling that as we progress through this current decade, we will begin to learn more about the possible health effects of diets high in genetically modified organisms. The frustrating angle, of course, is that we are not always made aware whether a certain food is genetically modified or not.

FYI: late last night, Dr. Marion Nestle uploaded a must-read post about the latest studies on genetically modified foods.

Onto your questions.

While clementines (seedless mandarins, for all intents and purposes) sound like a genetically modified dream, they are not (yay!).

It turns out clementines grow without seeds simply by being planted in isolation from other citrus fruits.

As for tempeh: yes, it is soy-based. Specifically, tempeh is made up of fermented soybeans. That fermentation process, by the way, makes it nutritionally superior to tofu.

The key with tempeh is to be familiar with the various brands. I can tell you that Lightlife tempeh products (their “Fakin’ Bacon” tempeh strips are glorious!) and Turtle Island tempeh products (love their sesame garlic marinated tempeh strips) do not contain genetically-modified soybeans.

What’s very ironic is that most people who are consuming high amounts of genetically-modified soy aren’t necessarily eating tempeh or tofu.

Remember — soy by-products (like soybean oil, soy protein isolate, and soy flour) are commonly used in a variety of processed foods, from chips to shelf-stable pastries to protein bars. That’s where mostof the genetically-modified soy is going.

I am a vegetarian and eat tofu, but I am hearing two things about tofu that are bothering me.

1) Tofu has large amounts of antibiotics or other additives dangerous to the human body.

2) In order to make tofu and fulfill the global need for tofu, the Brazilians have undertaken an incredible rate of slash and burn to clear fields to make way for planting of soybeans.

What are your thoughts?

— Barlow Humphreys
Westchester, NY

1) Tofu does not contain antibiotics.

The use of antibiotics only comes into play with animals that have them mixed into their feed.

Non-organic tofu contains pesticides, but there are no “dangerous additives” in soy products.

2) Brazil is one of the world’s top producers of soy.

It is certainly true that the increased demand for soy (along with corporate-owned genetically modified soy crops that can practically grow anywhere) have led to a staggering amount of deforestation there.

That said (and please do not take this to mean I am dismissing that as unimportant) — meat production takes an even larger toll on the environment, as it requires the use of more land, significantly more water usage, and creates a larger amount of waste.

One way to “pitch in”, from an environmental standpoint, is to purchase soy products made exclusively from soybeans that are not genetically modified, since non-GMO soybeans are usually grown more responsibly.

Although over 90 percent of the world’s soybeans are genetically modified, most of those are used to make soy by-products (ie: soybean oil, soy protein isolate) used in processed food.

When it comes to soy products, I recommend prioritizing tempeh (fermented soy) and edamame (picture alongside this post), as these are the most nutritious and less processed varieties.

Frequent visitors to this blog know I have a soft spot for tempeh, the mostly unknown — yet extremely nutritious — fermented soy product that is often relegated to the corners of supermarkets’ produce sections.

Hopefully this delicious and healthy sloppy joe recipe — passed on by a friend — will give you a reason to purchase some next time you’re at the grocery store.

The accompanying picture shows the end result (I wasn’t able to fit all of the filling into the buns, hence the spillover).

In case you’re wondering, that’s a side dish of broccoli-carrot slaw — topped off by a homemade tahini dressing — and two vitamin D pills!

Granted, its technical description — fermented soybeans — doesn’t do it many favors with unfamiliar consumers. And, to the untrained eye, a package of tempeh looks like a bland, moldy rectangle of blah.

Available in three flavors (coconut curry — my favorite –, sesame garlic, and lemon pepper), it is a ridiculously simple way to give this nutrition powerhouse a try. Simply heat the strips in a lightly greased pan for three to four minutes and you’re good to go.

As far as tofu is concerned — it is one thing to eat “tofu hot dogs” (which are highly processed and thereby high in sodium and chock full of preservatives,) but cubes of regular tofu (pictured, right) thrown into a vegetable stir fry is a great way for vegetarians to get protein, calcium, and Omega-3 fatty acids.

As for the soy-based estrogens, the only people who should be concerned are women living with breast cancer who consume four or more servings of soy on a daily basis.

Otherwise, there is absolutely no research showing that one or two daily servings of soy in a healthy individual poses any sort of health risk.

I don’t recommend gobbling down oodles of soy every day because it contributes quite a bit of Omega 6 fatty acids to the diet (which in itself is not bad, but the typical US diet provides way too much of it and not enough Omega 3’s — nowhere near the ideal ratio.)

Although Vitamin B12 is often cited as an issue in vegan diets, fortification has made this former problem a lot easier to manage.

Many popular cereals are fortified with vitamin B12.

Let’s go back to the Cheerios example — 1 cup provides a third of a day’s needs.

A cup of some (fortified) soymilks, meanwhile, contains 40 percent of a day’s worth of B12!

Wakame – a kelp – is also a great source. It’s one of the few seaweeds that contains human-active B12 (as opposed to the analog type, which is useless in our bodies).

In the event that B12 needs can not be met through food, I do recommend supplementation. Make sure it is specifically a B12 supplement and not a multivitamin containing B12 (vitamin C, vitamin E, and iron can impede absorption).

I eat a good amount of soy every day. What is your opinion on the studies that claim soy is anything but healthy?— Gretchen TrimmGreensborough, NC

The soy debate has been going on for a while, and it only appears to be intensifying.

Whereas many people appear to focus on whether soy is inherently good or bad, I think a more helpful way of looking at this issue is to consider how we are eating our soy.

For instance, let’s take potatoes.I could easily make the case that potatoes are unhealthy if I base my research on people who only eat them as French fries, chips, or mashed potatoes loaded with butter and bacon bits.

A similar thing is happening with soy.

The studies showing the benefits of including soy in one’s diet referred to nutritious variations of it, whether it’s tossing actual soybeans into a salad, eating tempeh, or having steamed or grilled tofu.

Unfortunately, once soy became popular in the United States, it was used to make soy chips, soy pretzels, and soy ice cream. In other words, soy became overshadowed by sodium, high fructose corn syrup, and a variety of food additives and unhealthy ingredients.

Remember that the closer your food is to nature, the higher its vitamin, mineral, and antioxidant component.

If someone’s only source of soy is unhealthy foods (i.e.: McDonald’s hamburgers and hamburger buns contain soy by-products), their nutrition status would clearly not benefit.

Just like a plain baked potato is a better source of fiber, vitamin C, and potassium than a potato-ish concoction in a can of Pringles, minimally processed versions of soy offer health benefits not found in a convenience snack made out of soydust.

I would not suggest anyone stop eating soy or consider it a harmful addition to their diet.If anything, products like edamame and tempeh are a great source of fiber, healthy fats, and protein.

However, I also think it is wrong to view soy — or any other food — as miraculous or healthy if consumed in extremely high amounts.

“Oh wow, this is good!” is the typical reaction of my non-vegetarian friends once I ask them to try tempeh.

Despite being familiar with meat alternatives, I myself didn’t try tempeh until a few months ago. I was instantly hooked. I loved the nutty flavor and texture, and its nutritional profile even more.

Tempeh has been an Indonesian staple for approximately 2,000 years that is finally starting to make its way into mainstream US culture. In fact, many commercial supermarkets across the country offer it alongside their tofu and faux meats in the produce department.

Its partly so nutritious because it is a whole food which undergoes very little processing, meaning its health properties remain intact.

To make it, soybeans are cooked and then fermented with a special agent. The fermented product is then incubated until a patty or thin cake is formed. Raw tempeh looks moldy, but it is 100% safe to eat.

There are many ways to prepare it. My favorite is to cut it into small strips, which I then sautee, and put in a salad. It also makes for an excellent stir-fry ingredient.

Just how good is tempeh, you ask? Half a cup provides:

210 calories

19 grams of protein (a little less than half a chicken breast)

7 grams of fiber (the equivalent of two medium apples)

550 milligrams of blood-pressure stabilizing potassium (slightly more than a medium banana).

That half cup also contains 30% of the recommended amount of riboflavin, a B-vitamin that, among many other tasks, oversees our liver’s detoxifying process.

Tempeh also delivers all of soy’s isoflavones (plant derived compounds) in one tasty package.

Since so many of soy’s health benefits are targeted to women, let me throw this tidbit out to my male readership. One of soy’s isoflavones, genisten, has been shown to lower our risk of colon cancer (for best results, it is recommended to consume 12 ounces of whole soy products a week).

Genisten is so powerful that not only does it prevent the spread of malignant cells, studies also suggest it interferes in such a way that it sets off their own self-destruction!

Curious for a taste? Lightlife offers several varieties of tempeh — including my favorite, with added flaxseed (another all-star I will discuss soon), that offers 11 grams of fiber and 20 grams of protein per serving.

Lightlife also sells “fakin’ bacon” tempeh strips that are a perfect addition to a lazy Sunday brunch.